[lit-ideas] EXISTENTIALISM MAKES ME NAUSEOUS

HELL IS THE OTHER

(following Erin's scheme)

Authentic despair transcends facticity,
negates all that exists,
chooses nihilistic schemes
as the theme of subjective reality.
It appropriates meaninglessness unto itself
as if being were the same as nothingness.
The nausea induced 
by the ontological 
responsibility for self
(as if there were such a thing
in a contingent world)
will not let us 
engage with the estranged other.
We stand alone,
negation our only affirmation.
Others are the alerity we fear for ourselves,
and yet we know full well,
that we are the unapproachable Other to all else.
In a world where we are 
always already only ourselves.
We call out, anxiously.
Absurdly hoping that someone 
somewhere
out there 
hears us.

Mike Geary
Memphis

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